That the Divine Understanding is not limited to certain fixed
Effects

NOW that it has been shown (Chap. XXIII) that
the divine power does not act of physical necessity, but by
understanding and will, lest any one should think that God's
understanding or knowledge extend only to certain fixed effects, and
that thus God acts under stress of ignorance, though not under stress
of physical constraint, it remains to show that His knowledge or
understanding is bounded by no limits in its view of effects.

2. We have shown above (B. I, Chap. XLIII) the
infinity of the divine essence. Now the plane of the infinite can never
be reached by any piling up of finite quantities, because the infinite
infinitely transcends any finite quantities however many, even though
they were infinite in number.* But no other
being than God is infinite in essence: all others are essentially
included under limited genera and species.*
Howsoever then and to whatsoever extent the effects of divine
production are comprehended, it is ever within the compass of the
divine essence to reach beyond them and to be the foundation of more.
The divine understanding then, in perfectly knowing the divine essence
(B. I, Chap. XLVII), transcends any infinity
of actual effects of divine power and therefore is not necessarily
limited to these or those effects.

4. If the causality of the divine understanding were limited, as a
necessary agent, to any effects, it would be to those effects which God
actually brings into being. But it has been shown above (B. I, Chap. LXVI) that God understands even things that
neither are nor shall be nor have been.

5. The divine knowledge stands to the things produced by God as the
knowledge of an artist to the knowledge of his art. But every art
extends to all that can possibly be contained under the kind of things
subject to that art, as the art of building to all houses. But the kind
of thing subject to the divine art is 'being' (genus subjectum
divinae artis est ens), since God by His understanding is the
universal principal of being (Chapp. XXI, XXIV). Therefore the divine understanding extends
its causality to all things that are not inconsistent with the notion
of 'being,' and is not limited to certain fixed effects Hence it is
said: Great is our Lord, and great his power, and of his wisdom;
there is no reckoning by number (Ps. cxlvi, 5) Hereby is excluded
the position of some philosophers who said that from God's
understanding of Himself there emanates a certain arrangement of things
in the universe, as though He did not deal with creatures at His
discretion fixing the limits of each creature and arranging the whole
universe, as the Catholic faith professes. It is to be observed however
that, though the divine understanding is not limited to certain
effects, God nevertheless has determined to Himself fixed effects to be
produced in due order by His wisdom, as it is said: Thou hast
disposed all things in measure, number and weight (Wisd. xi,
21).*